Women harassment at Civil Hospital

KARACHI - Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) is becoming a safe haven for illegal activities, as women harassment by outsiders and male nursing male staff is on the rise, The Nation has learned. The members of students’ wing of a national political party are largely involved in the sexual harassment of women, which included visiting female patients, female doctors, nurses and patients’ attendants, a senior male staff of CHK said, adding that the hospital administration seems helpless.An official of the hospital, on condition of anonymity, said that students of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST), belonging to the provincial ruling political party reached early morning in hospitals and start roaming outside the Outpatient Department (OPD) and emergency ward without any resistance. He said that the administration has received a number of harassment complaints especially from female staffers but the administration seems powerless. A female doctor, declined to be named, told The Nation that some male nursing staff have links with external miscreants, and are involved. The lady doctor, said that the abuse of female nurses in the hospital has become the routine matter and demanded authorities to step forward to take control. A senior doctor said that the criminals are involved in other crimes also, which include minting illegal money. He said some of them are also involved in collecting cash from visiting OPD patients and their attendants on the name of receipt from counters “Parchi”; sometime these external elements force X-ray ward technicians to carry out tests free of cost. There are other reports of the same people thrashing hospital staff.